Home & Garden Are you a DIY person?

[Igloo]

I'm good at gardening and making/fixing s**t with wood. Can change a tyre, but other than that and using jumper cables, I know very, very little about cars.
I can at least attempt most things, it's just electrical stuff that is a bit intimidating to tackle. I can rewire an extension cord, but that's about it.

 

[Scotland]

There is * all you can do under the hood of new cars anyway. You can check/change the oil, radiator fluid and windscreen washer water but that's about it. If you've got the tools and patience to get to the spark plugs you can probably change them too, but all the timing etc. is controlled by CPU so a tune up is basically plugging in a computer and letting it do the work.

 

[edgie]

At the rates most builders and tradies charge these days, becoming handy should become a thing again.

 

[Quokka]

Wouldn't say I'm a handyman but I do find myself able to both break and fix things a lot more now than when I was younger.

 

[Beerfish]

I'm awesome at taking things apart. Putting them back together, not so much.

 

[Natho]

I get to frustrated and throw s**t around. Hard enough servicing my lawn mowers haha

 

[edgie]

I'm awesome at taking things apart. Putting them back together, not so much.

I do that but with Lego. There is always a few pieces left over and I have nfi where to put them. Maybe I just find a more efficient way to build?

 

[Beerfish]

Things are so much easier today with resources like Youtube/Google coupled with having a camera in your phone that can take as many reference pictures as you need. If you've got the time and the interest you're much better placed to have a crack at just about anything.

 

[ioppolo]

I'm pretty handy in the garden, does that count?

When it comes to cars, checking oil and changing a tyre is as good as it gets. Anything plumbing wise? Don't waste your time asking me. Working with Timber and wood related things, I go alright, am more of a brains trust with that rather than hands on. I work well in a team rather than solo.

 

[edgie]

The problem with starting on a path of being handy, quality tools are bloody expensive, but if you buy the right ones, you should only have to pay for them once. Parental hand me downs can be a big help.

 

[Scotland]

Good quality tools are expensive, but you don't need a lot of them to be a bit of a handyman around the house.

If you're going to build a deck and pergola for example then you'll need a good circular saw, drill capable of putting in decking screws etc. but most jobs around the house don't really require expensive specialty tools.

 

[Cruyff14]

You also need to know how to use the drill and cut properly etc.

 

[Hamingja]

I have had to call Racv once as the wheel nuts were too tight. ..he came along with the mother of all wrenches.

Same thing happened to me. I was jumping on the lever and it wouldn't move an inch with 90kg of force. They are designed to sit in the spare wheel slot and they are too short, RACV guy comes with one 2m long and it was a piece of piss for him.

 

[Scotland]

Wheel nuts too tight is usually a function of getting new tyres and the bloke at the shop fits the wheels with the ratchet gun.

 

[Gasometer]

Wheel nuts too tight is usually a function of getting new tyres and the bloke at the shop fits the wheels with the ratchet gun.

Idiots.

 

[Scotland]

You also need to know how to use the drill and cut properly etc.

That sort of goes without saying.

No point having a $500 drill if you don't know how to use it.

 

[WCErevival]

Anything on car and in garden I do. Most house repairs I will get someone else to do unless its something small and easy.

 

[BotsMaster]

Same thing happened to me. I was jumping on the lever and it wouldn't move an inch with 90kg of force. They are designed to sit in the spare wheel slot and they are too short, RACV guy comes with one 2m long and it was a piece of piss for him.

This is why I leave my impact wrench in the boot.

 

[Papa Juggs]

I've always lived with other people that are handy so I haven't had to do much myself. My dad was always very handy just not motivated to carry through with his renovations. How about your dad grizzlym?

My former house mate had a stack of tools his grandpa left him when he got too old to use them himself. We built a chicken coop together for our one chicken, it ended up quite solid and had to be put on wheels because it got too heavy to lift. The sides would swing open to hose it out easily through the mesh bottom, had a nest box to one side with a hinged lid to grab the eggs out. We could have fit 4-6 chickens in there but we never had the chance. We put up a tall wooden box garden with a shadecloth around it. Looked like we were growing weed in it lol. We then built a larger brick wall raised garden bed with a fully functioning sprinkler system. That provided many good salads and it's something I'd love to do again at my new place. We also built a couple of tables for cooking outside. Drop saws, saw bench, lots of drills. Sometimes you'd need a drill with a drilling bit, one with a screwdriver bit and one with a countersink bit. Yeah a quick change drill would be nice but didn't have one

I voted no but wouldn't consider myself that useless. I mean I can change a light bulb, being tall helps

 

[Caesar]

I can do most stuff required to get by. Simple household repairs, mostly. Dad is an engineer by trade so he was always quite handy when I was growing up, naturally that made me take an interest and he taught me a lot. Not sure I'd say I am a 'DIY person' though - that always calls to mind those guys who make their own bookshelves and stuff on Better Homes & Gardens. If I tried to do stuff like that it would resemble my year 9 woodwork projects, so I can't see the point. I would like to renovate a house some day though - I think that would be a pretty good learning experience.

It does boggle me the baseline that a lot of people have, though. I was somewhere the other day with about half a dozen guys in their 20s and one of them had a flat battery on his car. I offered my jumper leads and not a single other person there knew how to use them.

 

[Scotland]

It does boggle me the baseline that a lot of people have, though. I was somewhere the other day with about half a dozen guys in their 20s and one of them had a flat battery on his car. I offered my jumper leads and not a single other person there knew how to use them.

This.

How do people not know stuff like this?

 

[Papa Juggs]

Generation Y

 

[TheFreshBanana]

Can you change a tyre Stratton_Gun ?

This is my biggest accomplishment in terms of DIY (probably in life too).

Took me about 1-2 hours but to be fair it was pitch black and I only had the light on my phone

 

[Gasometer]

.

It does boggle me the baseline that a lot of people have, though. I was somewhere the other day with about half a dozen guys in their 20s and one of them had a flat battery on his car. I offered my jumper leads and not a single other person there knew how to use them.

Problem is that depending upon the age of the car, jumper leads as we used in the 90's and before can have the potential to cause damage to the electrics/computers of the cars.

 

[IschenkoUBeauty]

It does boggle me the baseline that a lot of people have, though. I was somewhere the other day with about half a dozen guys in their 20s and one of them had a flat battery on his car. I offered my jumper leads and not a single other person there knew how to use them.

Typical of a lot of blokes that age. Would rather be looking in the farking mirror doing their hair, shopping at the mall, manscaping, taking selfies, or drinking craft beer.

A lot of young blokes really need to harden the * up.